Peggy shook her head and laughed as Howard started inspecting the lamp post, clearly already planning some kind of robotic walking lamppost, which only made Peggy think of the War of the Worlds story. Whatever Howard might plan would undoubtedly turn out terrifying and weaponizable. “I realise it cannot move Howard, but who knows what has touched it. And I have seen how this scenario ends – with my tongue stuck to the icy pole while you giggle and think you’re hilarious.”

“Steve would have done it.”

“Don’t you dare, Howard. You know full well that he would have done no such thing. Dum Dum, however, would more than likely have done it for a quid.” Peggy slid her arm around Howard’s. “Now can we please keep going, I would like to get inside before the snow storm hits in full force. “

With all the drinking he did, Peggy was surprised he did not have a higher tolerance for it. Still, it did keep what might have been a tedious meeting interesting. And tonight, he had provided a wonderful diversion and kept things from getting out of hand with Richard.

They might have had Mister Jarvis pick them up but he was already snowed in, so they were walking to the hotel. Peggy’s idea in hopes of sobering up Howard somewhat before they got there. She needed to have him capable of concentrating. She had a bad feeling about what Richard, their new young scientist at S.H.I.E.L.D. had been talking about. Such technology sounded even more dangerous than what Howard created, and Howard’s work never called for human test subjects in the way Richard was suggesting. Children should not be subjected to such things.

Maybe when Howard was sobered up he would see the ethical issues of this experiment, or at least Peggy hoped so. One could never tell with Howard when he turned into an excited schoolboy at the thought of scientific discovery.

Regardless, Peggy knew where she stood and she did not want S.H.I.E.L.D going down that path. It would make them no better than the Russians had been. So far there had been only one good thing to come out of those experiments and she was well hidden now, no matter how hard Dottie Underwood tried to find her.